Human voice identification is based upon the premise that all human voices contain unique characteristics which can be distinguished from others using special analysis. Both the scientific and commercial communities agree that the human voice has qualities of uniqueness which can be used for biometric identification of individuals. Voiceprints include unique measurements of individual physiological characteristics, as well as the frequency, cadence and duration of vocal patterns. In fact, forms of this capability already exist for limited and controlled applications. Currently, software solutions based on fingerprints, iris or retinal scans have shown better identification/verification results than similar applications based on voiceprints. Nevertheless, the use of voice-based biometric solutions could be more appropriate in a variety of situations, such as the necessity for rapid, large-scale screening operations, mobile/field use, covert applications, scenarios requiring examinee acceptance, and scenarios involving a high probability of intentional masking or changes to self-biometric data. The aforementioned examinee acceptance refers to the fact that in many areas of the world there is strong cultural opposition to touching something that has been touched by many other people, while there is no such objection to speaking in to a microphone.
VoicePrint is a term that was introduced into the scientific community along with the appearance of voice spectrographic methods in the late 1940s. Compared with fingerprints, voiceprints are a more complicated object. Fingerprint theory rests on the premise that the human fingerprint (effectively a dactylographic image) does not change its structure/features during an individual's lifetime. In the case of voiceprints, voice signals are different for each record (even if a person repeats the same phrase). Therefore, a decision on which specific features should be extracted from the voice, and how they are extracted, is more complicated than the same decision regarding fingerprints. Furthermore, the selected features should be relatively permanent throughout a person's lifetime. In reality, in order to utilize voiceprint technology for identification, all voiceprint experts use several categories of voice features for analysis and make positive voice match decisions based upon matching several voice features in different categories.
Positive identification of local inhabitants plays an important role in modern military, police and security operations. Since terrorists use all means to masquerade as local inhabitants, the identification of terrorist or hostile suspects becomes an increasingly complicated task. The instant software solution will assist military, police and security forces in the identification of suspects using Voice Print Recognition (VPR) technology. Our VPR software will compare and recognize, or match, specific voice samples with stored, digital voice models (voice prints) for the purpose of establishing or verifying identity. VPR software will support an operator's decision and situational awareness through the verification of a person's identity (for instance: remote access control), but more importantly will assist in the identification of suspect individuals (identifying suspects among a large group of captured individuals). This second application is critical for the modern counter and anti-terrorist operations environment. The VPR system will be easy to use, fast, and helpful to users with minimal operational training. The VPR system will provide a method, as practiced on or via access to a computing device, which includes software for acquisition of voice records, storage of such records, identification algorithms, user and software interfaces. The system will also have server and client applications in its implementation.